Seki koete tabine naritsuru kusamakura karisome ni hata omōenu kana

English Translation

Crossing the barrier,
I came to a night's lodging
on a pillow of grass —
and yet it does not seem to
me a thing of one night only.

Meaning

Crossing the barrier, I came to a night's lodging on a pillow of grass; and yet it does not seem to me a thing of one night only.

Commentary

64 Taking in an Adopted Daughter: An Old Exchange between Kaneie and the Daughter of Minamoto no Kanetada

Since one child, Michitsuna, seemed too slender a support, the author consulted an acquaintance about taking in a daughter, and was told that Kaneie had a charming girl of twelve or thirteen by the daughter of Minamoto no Kanetada. It was settled that the girl should be taken in as an adopted daughter. Poems that Kaneie and that woman had once exchanged were handed down with the story: Kaneie composed first, the woman answered, and after some while she made a further poem in reply to one of his.
The author was a daughter of Fujiwara no Tomoyasu. Kaneie was the third son of Fujiwara no Morosuke and would rise to be regent and chancellor. The girl's mother is taken to be a daughter of Minamoto no Kanetada, though the text gives no name. The adopted daughter was twelve or thirteen.
It is the third year of Tenroku, about the time the adopted daughter was taken in; the text does not say where.
Since one child seemed too slender a support, an adopted daughter was to be taken in, and this is the first of the poems handed down as having been exchanged long before between Kaneie and the girl's mother.
She answered with "Obotsukana ware ni mo aranu kusamakura mada koso shirane kakaru tabine wa."

The opening means crossing a barrier, marking the course of a journey. The second means that it became a night spent away from home. The third names the pillow of grass, the word for a traveler's rest, and restates the second line. The fourth means a thing of the moment, done once and no more; but its first syllables sound the word for cutting grass, which binds it to the pillow above. The close is an exclamation that it does not seem so. A night's lodging on a journey is laid over a single night with a woman, and to say that it does not seem a thing of one night is to declare the depth of his feeling. It is an old exchange quoted in the account of taking in the adopted daughter, and that the diary should record even Kaneie's poems to another woman shows something of the range of the third book.

Author

Fujiwara no Kaneie

Source

Kagero Nikki

Other